WhatsApp Chief Business Officer Neeraj Arora Quits

Neeraj Arora, the chief business officer of peer-to-peer messenger platform WhatsApp, resigned from his post yesterday joining a stream of top executives who have departed Facebook, which owns WhatsApp.

Arora, an IIT- Delhi alumnus and the number four in the company, was being touted to take over as WhatsApp CEO earlier this year, however, the role of global head of the company was given to Chris Daniels. Arora had been with WhatsApp since 2011 and through Facebook’s $19 billion acquisition of the messaging company in 2014. His exit comes seven months after WhatsApp co-founder Jan Koum left the company.

“It is hard to believe that it has been seven years since Jan (Koum) and Brian (Acton) got me onboard at WhatsApp, and it has been one hell of a ride! It is time to move on, but I cannot be more proud of how WhatsApp continues to touch people in so many different ways every day,” Arora said in a Facebook post on Monday.

Arora’s exit comes at a time when WhatsApp is facing criticism over the spread of fake news on its platform. This year WhatsApp deployed campaigns in top markets like India and Brazil to educate users and help them avoid sending around false information.

In addition to WhatsApp’s top executives, Facebook has also lost Instagram co-founders Kevin Systrom and Mike Krieger and Oculus co-founder Brendan Iribe in recent months. Alex Stamos, who was Facebook’s chief security officer, left in August.

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